Got it because I had to run dirt all over my skin from head to toe so I wouldn’t get poison oak

(6) What did you dream of when things weren’t going well?

When things weren’t going well I dreamt of a fresh meal and relaxing with a roof over my head

(7) Did you experience anything miraculous?

Experienced many miracles one being the people I met, whenever I ran out of something whether it was food or Something I happened to run across people that helped my out. And also a few times when I was having a really bad day and started to question why I was out there I ran into other people that needed something from me. One time a couple dudes had like 10 miles to go in the dessert before another water source and I gave them one of my 2 liters to get them through. Little things like that kept me going.

(8) Any memorable encounters with the elements, or wildlife?

Many memorable encounters. Wildlife I saw bears, rattlesnakes, owls, a fox, a wolf, tons of elk, deer, rabbits, and many many more. I had many unbelievably beautiful encounters with wildlife. Every single day was like I was living inside the National Geographic channel, it was amazing. One memorable one was I got hit by a crazy blizzard on knifes edge, in the goat rocks wilderness. Probably 70 mph winds blowing snow in my face. Couldn’t see more than 10 feet in front of me and the trail was gone underneath about 8 inches of snow. It was one of those “oh shit” moments for sure.

(9) Think back to your “pre-hike self.” Now think of yourself here at the end. Has anything changed?

I would say what has changed the most about me is that I have realized that I don’t need a lot of things to live and be happy. I had the bare necessities on the trail, and at times it would have been nice to have a bit more, but overall I was really happy just living so simply

(10) Now that you are off the trail, what do you miss most about it?

Now that I’m off the trail I definitely miss number one being out in nature 24/7 and the epic views and climbs. But I still get in my nature fix on the weekends.

(13) What’s the difference between life on the trail and life off the trail?

The biggest difference for me about life on the trail vs life off the trail is that off trail every day is on a schedule. Not only the obvious, work schedule throughout the week but also juggling seeing people and working out and going shopping and all these things that you need to plan and it’s not that difficult to plan all these things but I just feel like I’m in a rush all the time, instead of on the trail where everything was in the moment, there was no schedule it was just wake up and get to a certain spot in a week so you don’t run out of food.